ROCKNIX is a community developed Linux distribution for handheld gaming devices. Our goal is to produce an operating system that has the features and capabilities that we need, and to have fun as we develop it.

Licenses

ROCKNIX is a Linux distribution that is made up of many open-source components. Components are provided under their respective licenses. This distribution includes components licensed for non-commercial use only.

ROCKNIX Branding

ROCKNIX branding and images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

You are free to

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material

Under the following terms

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
• ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

ROCKNIX Software

Copyright (C) 2026 ROCKNIX (https://github.com/ROCKNIX)

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Installation

• Download the latest version of ROCKNIX.
• Decompress the image.
• Write the image to an SDCARD using an imaging tool. Common imaging tools include Balena Etcher, Raspberry Pi Imager, and Win32 Disk Imager. If you're skilled with the command line, dd works fine too.

Installation Package Downloads

Upgrading

• Download and install the update online via the System Settings menu.
• If you are unable to update online
  • Download the latest version of ROCKNIX from Github
  • Copy the update to your device over the network to your device's update share.
  • Reboot the device, and the update will begin automatically.

Update Package Downloads

Documentation

Contribute

• Building ROCKNIX
• Code of Conduct
• Contributing to ROCKNIX
• Modifying ROCKNIX
• Adding Hardware Quirks
• Creating Packages
• Pull Request Template

Play

• Installing ROCKNIX
• Updating ROCKNIX
• Controls
• Netplay
• Configuring Moonlight
• Device Specific Documentation

Configure

• Optimizations
• Shaders
• Cloud Sync
• VPN

Other

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Donating to ROCKNIX

Full Changelog: 2026090...2026100

Changelog

🐧 Kernel & Boot

• rocknix-abl: bump version (spycat88) (b354bfe)
• linux: kernel config (github-merge-queue[bot]) (9b0747f)
• linux: fix parallel build races with initramfs and sysroot headers (sunshineinabox) (e74d9da)
• rocknix-abl: fix sha256 (spycat88) (55752d4)
• rocknix-abl: bump version (spycat88) (e9ff9db)
• linux: cap brightness for icna35xx panels, kudos @virtudude (spycat88) (6a7213e)
• rocknix-joypad: update version, needed for linux 7.3 (Mike) (c0eb8dc)
• linux: kernel config (sunshineinabox) (a53899e)
• linux: drm/msm/dpu: enable QSEED detail enhancer (tiopex) (60bb58c)
• linux: drm/msm/dpu: enable true inline rotation (tiopex) (ec3d53b)

🎮 Emulators & Frontend

• steam: remove previous runtime versions (tiopex) (51bebf5)
• duckstation-sa: make the AppImage executable (Jacob Cook) (f2148e8)
• emulationstation: bump package (spycat88) (dc2d340)
• armsx2-sa: bump to 2.7.1 (Brian Degenhardt) (19692b4)
• emulationstation: bump package (spycat88) (1884799)
• steam: fix STEAM_COMPAT_GRAPHICS_PROVIDER path typo (tiopex) (bc6e320)
• steam: SM4450: wayland gamescope backend (John Williams) (9f0286a)
• emulationstation: bump version (H700 sleep) (John Williams) (40b25fc)
• rpcs3-sa: ship the wiki config database (Edouard Durand) (c7726a5)
• dsperate-sa: bump to 2.0.1, fixes dsiware zip support (Noxwell) (3d4eba5)
• steam: add possibility to reinstall steamrt (tiopex) (e878bd9)
• dsperate-sa: add emulator (Noxwell) (d75a220)
• emulationstation: bump package (spycat88) (125fac1)
• emulationstation: bump package (spycat88) (9ebb398)
• emulationstation: bump package (spycat88) (f1b71fa)
• armsx2-sa: fix ecm package race on runners (Noxwell) (c49e8af)
• emulationstation: bump package (spycat88) (1f76feb)
• ppsspp-sa: SM4450 config (John Williams) (42daa56)
• melonds-sa: fix typo (spycat88) (6ddc7ca)
• pico-8: fix install step (spycat88) (8c0a6fe)
• portmaster: bump package and add zip dependency (spycat88) (94c661f)
• emulationstation: bump package (SM4450 affinity) (John Williams) (c6c5897)
• emulationstation: bump to include fuel gauge reset entry (Jacob Cook) (f0496e7)
• box64: enable dynarec for platforms without preset (sunshineinabox) (c65e799)

🖥️ Graphics

• mangohud: SM4450 battery time remaining (John Williams) (2b10c05)
• mangohud: enable for SM4450 (John Williams) (f31657f)
• libmali: force linear to allow direct scanout (sunshineinabox) (084b718)
• gamescope: keep scanout rotation on panels over the DPU rotator cap (Philippe Simons) (a426271)

📱 Device Support

• sm8250: fix mpm and air y audio (sunshineinabox) (2d47bf1)
• sm8250: enable DP on mangmi devices (sunshineinabox) (7b4da83)
• SM8250: fix USB-C power role swap on pm8150b (Jacob Cook) (5e52df2)
• RK3326/RK3566: disable batteryplus (Jacob Cook) (e59748b)
• SM8250: fix pm8150b charging, USB-C VBUS and Retroid DP audio (Jacob Cook) (1dc63e1)
• rk3566/linux: support STI8070A via patch (Noxwell) (82dd3a6)
• sm6115: tie touch panel to display panel (sunshineinabox) (423324d)
• SM4450: sync kernel patches from batocera (Philippe Simons) (05933aa)
• SM8750: move AYN dts files into qcom directory (Philippe Simons) (6cb9859)
• H700: pass bootloader binaries through the sysroot, not build dirs (Jacob Cook) (3e54957)
• H700: add AXP717 charge-only boot support to u-boot (Kailash) (abdf50b)
• H700: disable copy-image extensions in Panfrost to avoid CPU fallback (Kailash) (02e3edc)
• SM8750: move patch files to dts (spycat88) (0b991b0)
• H700: invalidate atf when the suspend stub recipe changes (Jacob Cook) (702da74)
• H700: install the suspend stubs into the sysroot (Jacob Cook) (93119b3)
• SM8250: Retroid Pocket 5 dock: USB 3, PD and DisplayPort (Jacob Cook) (e4461cf)
• SM4450: input modifiers quirk (John Williams) (aa7c550)
• SM4450: RG 55G1 backlight devicetree (John Williams) (6a08ec8)
• H700: keep the suspend stub build dir until atf has read it (Philippe Simons) (1375f24)
• sm8650/sm8750: ar14 panel expose the 120/90/60 Hz DFPS modes (Philippe Simons) (e2a4216)
• sm8250: gate MANGMI InputPlumber configs on the device-tree model (Philippe Simons) (8c0d2e6)
• H700: firmware deep sleep (Jacob Cook) (fca6ac5)
• sm8250: finish the Air Y Pro rename (Philippe Simons) (807c74f)
• SM8250: rename Mangmi Air Y Pro (spycat88) (090d1af)
• sm8250: improve fan control (sunshineinabox) (f0b5fad)
• quirks: enable analog sticks led control (spycat88) (6ec9104)
• SM8550: Fix the RP6 touchscreen sampling rate (28 Hz to 119 Hz) (Diogo Trindade) (3829f7c)
• SM4450: battery sysfs name (John Williams) (97ac940)
• SM4450: governors (John Williams) (2b609a3)
• rk3566: add Anbernic RG DS Plus support (Noxwell) (675c364)
• RK3566: keep the rtw88 driver loaded across sleep (Jacob Cook) (2e5f75c)
• SM4450: docs (John Williams) (f8ee53f)
• SM4450: add affinity quirk (John Williams) (c43197c)
• SM4450: fix RG55G1 x/y button mapping (John Williams) (1638cba)
• SM4450: Add steam for now to test and other mised changes (sunshineinabox) (98aea9f)
• sm4450: map the RG55G1 guide and back keys (Philippe Simons) (b0ca10a)
• sm4450: add the Anbernic RG55G1 (Philippe Simons) (710ecf0)
• sm4450: add remaining rev Q (sunshineinabox) (514ca09)
• RK3566: fix GPU clock ownership and regulator balance (Jacob Cook) (7153ebf)
• SM8750: use upstream AW99706 patch series (thefiqs) (dcf5545)

🔧 System

• poppler: remove dependency in base (Mike) (1e8d185)
• installtointernal: add support for preserving Android userdata when migrating from another distro or reinstalling to internal (spycat88) (f15d4a0)
• config: cleanup unused grub options (spycat88) (8e5e498)
• input_sense: make the device rescan retry actually run (Jacob Cook) (dc5f51a)

📚 Documentation

• documentation: SUPPORTED_EMULATORS_AND_CORES (github-merge-queue[bot]) (513e44d)
• documentation: SUPPORTED_EMULATORS_AND_CORES (sunshineinabox) (4c75873)

🔩 Other

• fex: pin nixos (sunshineinabox) (e348c45)

• es-theme: show logo text with fullscreen artwork (sunshineinabox) (0ca03d1)

• wifictl: refactor and add support for connecting to saved networks (spycat88) (b1f8464)

• armsx2-turnip: ship ARMSX2's Turnip build for Adreno 6xx/7xx (Brian Degenhardt) (b9a5d8c)

• emulators: make armsx2 the default PS2 emulator (Brian Degenhardt) (8c8c776)

• wifictl: fix changing wifi networks, when already connected (spycat88) (3993c6b)

• rg28xx: fix rotation (v44r) (e366b44)

• rk817: bound the boot soc with the ocv table (Jacob Cook) (f79ac01)

• rk817: clear SYS_CAN_SD at init, as the BSP does (Jacob Cook) (39b77d2)

• rk817: correct the fuel gauge across boot and sleep (Jacob Cook) (f03ec13)

• batteryplus: seed the voltage anchors from the battery driver (Jacob Cook) (909fe3f)

• es: add poppler as a dependency (Mike) (e0e8b7a)

• feat: add MANGMI Pocket AirY Pro (SM8250) (Philippe Simons) (063e530)

• rotator: move fix to common patches (sunshineinabox) (180057b)

• emulators: enable armsx2-sa for RK3566/RK3576 (John Williams) (262d82d)

• Pixel2: power off on measured voltage, not the fuel gauge (Jacob Cook) (4c8c796)

• standalone: cleanup packages (spycat88) (28e750d)

• batteryplus: snap the visible percent on resume in PMIC mode (Jacob Cook) (777dec6)

• zip: reintroduce package (spycat88) (b289e35)

• github: check for merge-blocked label (spycat88) (f2acc50)

• batteryplus: enable on H700 (Jacob Cook) (4dda35c)

• batteryplus: enable on RK3326 and RK3566 (Jacob Cook) (d3fa847)

• batteryplus: tidy up (John Williams) (5bc9e18)

• rk817: add fuel gauge reset to factoryreset (Jacob Cook) (8931cfa)

• batteryplus: tidy up, add BATTERYPLUS_SUPPORT to build options (John Williams) (d5592db)

• 69 commits omitted

• Full changelog: 2026090...2026100